Benjamin crosses Salt Creek

Well it has been a little while since i have posted...mostly due to crazy car troubles and the like- but this does not mean that I have been away from REU fun, no no, far from it! Last week we went out to Salt Creek to sample a few off-channel habitats with the old semi reliable rowboat. As can be seen above, John was kind enough to let me strike a noble pose as we made our way to the sample area. What is not evident from the photograph is that we forgot to put the plug into the boat (happens more often than one would think) and as a result, my interpretation of Benjamin crossing Salt Creek became Benjamin floundering in Salt Creek.

As it turned out, the second site of the day (Pished- like fished but with a P) yielded the most fish I have ever seen in one haul off the shore. A rough estimate put numbers of forage fish at the thousands (~4,500 anchovies, 2,500 surf smelt, 2,000 herring + dozens of other fish fauna). unfortunately, the sheer numbers of this haul made it difficult to capture on camera, so your best bet would be to go watch Finding Nemo- in particular the part where Nemo encourages, like, a million anchovies to escape the clutches of the evil humans, mu ha ha ha ha. In any case, the day certainly gave me hope of restoring some ecologically fit systems to the Straight, and a provided a re-justification of the importance of our work.